Overview: These are the notes Kristen took on Nov 4th. Please read over the notes and add any additional thoughts or ideas that we might have missed.
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Critical Thinking Collaborative Inquiry Project
November 4th, 2009
What do we hope for?
improved student learning (success)
more independent thinking
positive risk taking
greater comfort level/facility as teachers
nurture a community of thinkers among staff
more empowered as a learner
greater engagement
- if we can nurture critical thinking with the smallest task, that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be huge
- by tweaking questions to nurture critical thinking skills then it can be very powerful
- the gradual release of responsibility model is a good way to scaffold this for the students
Grade 1: Science- Living and Non-living Things
Rank order the 3 most basic needs of a pet (Do as a whole group lesson first, teacher modelling)
Then do same activity in small groups
Bigger challenge, profile 5 different pets from Humane Society and then determine who would be the best owner for these pets based on the criteria we’ve identified.
What about assessment?
-leading up to assessing independent thinking, you could try the following strategies to give children practice in developing their opinion, talking about it, defending it, convincing others, changing your opinion. This develops the habit of mind for tolerance for ambiguity- giving kids permission to move and shift and change their mind develops this habit of mind
- think-pair- share
- 4 corners activity, talk and share with a partner there why you chose to stand there
- then move to find a partner who is standing at another area to discuss why you stood there and defend your views
- U-shaped discussion, give them lots of chances to talk with each other, defend their point of view, and opportunities to change their mind based on what you heard from others through the discussions
- still could include a culminating piece where they show either through oral conference with the teacher, written or pictoral their thinking and also.... how their thinking was refined through discussion with ( this would be the student meta-cognitive piece)
Kindergarten: Fiction vs. Non-fiction
- books are changing right now, we have a lot of books available to us that are a little bit fiction and non-fiction
-look at a variety of books: fiction and non-fiction, sort them, talk about the characteristics of them: Decode the puzzle- what makes a book fiction or non-fiction?
Then move into judge the better or the best: look at other books that have characteristics of both then move into the question: "What gives us better information, fiction or non-fiction?
-Concept attainment activity: what if you said "we’re going to look at different types of books and the characteristics of them" sort them. Talk about what is the same about each set of books, what is different? And then all you have to do is label them (this is a decode the puzzle if it is done well)
"where does this one belong?" "What about this one?"
-ultimately, build criteria for how animals adapt for winter
- one valid criteria that is developed for talking about resources that are appropriate might be "it works best for me"
-other criteria might be the pictures/visuals are informative (this could be collapsed into relevant information), relevant information, appropriate vocabulary, appropriate for me/personal style, easy for me to read
-one of the best ways to start to build criteria, especially for young children is to start with outrageous criteria, start with a book that doesn’t have anything to do with hibernation. Ask how does this book help us learn about hibernation? That will start to draw out the criteria for what we should be looking for to learn about hibernation.
- possible end task could be to go to the library and look for books that are related to a specific topic
-anchor chart: what will this look like for Kindergarten? Icons to show each criteria (make this a design to specs) Tammy suggested using post-it notes to create the anchor chart, and then use their own words and pictures to show their thinking (possibly visit Grade 1 class to see how they do this)
Levels of Engagement:
c. The Critical Thinking Consortium
Willing to do (on task)
Interests or surprises (entertained)
Useful/Meaningful (motivated)
Challenging ("caught up")
Transforming (empowered)
-these are roughly hierarchical
- teachers often stop at the level of entertainment
- if you’re going to do some co-teaching, co-planning, have your colleague come in to your classroom to look at the level of engagement that the students are at
- this criteria could be used when your colleague comes into the class as an extra pair of eyes
Degree of intensity: Are you just complying or are you eager and interested?
How does this fit in with the Big Idea?
- November’s coaching/lead literacy session is devoted to this topic, we’ll be weaving the big idea into the critical thinking framework
- bottom line is, kids are still being measured on the expectations in the curriculum
- frame a big idea in what you want to kids walk around with as a phrase, "what’s swirling around in their head?" When we phrase it as a word, it doesn’t give the direction for what we want kids to walk away with
- the big idea is a way to connect what we are doing instead of just doing little snippets of activities and books because we like them or that’s what we’ve always done
Example:
Key learning: different sources give us different information
2nd Key learning: different people have different opinions (to get at the big idea)
How to Edit: Click on the "Edit" tab in the top right hand corner of this page. The page will turn into a document that you can edit. You'll see an "Editor" bar on the top of the screen where you can format your text in bold, italics or underline it. When you're done editing, be sure to click on "Save" in the Editor bar at the top of the screen.
Critical Thinking Collaborative Inquiry Project
November 4th, 2009
What do we hope for?
improved student learning (success)
more independent thinking
positive risk taking
greater comfort level/facility as teachers
nurture a community of thinkers among staff
more empowered as a learner
greater engagement
- if we can nurture critical thinking with the smallest task, that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be huge
- by tweaking questions to nurture critical thinking skills then it can be very powerful
- the gradual release of responsibility model is a good way to scaffold this for the students
Grade 1: Science- Living and Non-living Things
Rank order the 3 most basic needs of a pet (Do as a whole group lesson first, teacher modelling)
Then do same activity in small groups
Bigger challenge, profile 5 different pets from Humane Society and then determine who would be the best owner for these pets based on the criteria we’ve identified.
What about assessment?
-leading up to assessing independent thinking, you could try the following strategies to give children practice in developing their opinion, talking about it, defending it, convincing others, changing your opinion. This develops the habit of mind for tolerance for ambiguity- giving kids permission to move and shift and change their mind develops this habit of mind
- think-pair- share
- 4 corners activity, talk and share with a partner there why you chose to stand there
- then move to find a partner who is standing at another area to discuss why you stood there and defend your views
- U-shaped discussion, give them lots of chances to talk with each other, defend their point of view, and opportunities to change their mind based on what you heard from others through the discussions
- still could include a culminating piece where they show either through oral conference with the teacher, written or pictoral their thinking and also.... how their thinking was refined through discussion with ( this would be the student meta-cognitive piece)
Kindergarten: Fiction vs. Non-fiction
- books are changing right now, we have a lot of books available to us that are a little bit fiction and non-fiction
-look at a variety of books: fiction and non-fiction, sort them, talk about the characteristics of them: Decode the puzzle- what makes a book fiction or non-fiction?
Then move into judge the better or the best: look at other books that have characteristics of both then move into the question: "What gives us better information, fiction or non-fiction?
-Concept attainment activity: what if you said "we’re going to look at different types of books and the characteristics of them" sort them. Talk about what is the same about each set of books, what is different? And then all you have to do is label them (this is a decode the puzzle if it is done well)
"where does this one belong?" "What about this one?"
-ultimately, build criteria for how animals adapt for winter
- one valid criteria that is developed for talking about resources that are appropriate might be "it works best for me"
-other criteria might be the pictures/visuals are informative (this could be collapsed into relevant information), relevant information, appropriate vocabulary, appropriate for me/personal style, easy for me to read
-one of the best ways to start to build criteria, especially for young children is to start with outrageous criteria, start with a book that doesn’t have anything to do with hibernation. Ask how does this book help us learn about hibernation? That will start to draw out the criteria for what we should be looking for to learn about hibernation.
- possible end task could be to go to the library and look for books that are related to a specific topic
-anchor chart: what will this look like for Kindergarten? Icons to show each criteria (make this a design to specs) Tammy suggested using post-it notes to create the anchor chart, and then use their own words and pictures to show their thinking (possibly visit Grade 1 class to see how they do this)
Levels of Engagement:
c. The Critical Thinking Consortium
Willing to do (on task)
Interests or surprises (entertained)
Useful/Meaningful (motivated)
Challenging ("caught up")
Transforming (empowered)
-these are roughly hierarchical
- teachers often stop at the level of entertainment
- if you’re going to do some co-teaching, co-planning, have your colleague come in to your classroom to look at the level of engagement that the students are at
- this criteria could be used when your colleague comes into the class as an extra pair of eyes
Degree of intensity: Are you just complying or are you eager and interested?
How does this fit in with the Big Idea?
- November’s coaching/lead literacy session is devoted to this topic, we’ll be weaving the big idea into the critical thinking framework
- bottom line is, kids are still being measured on the expectations in the curriculum
- frame a big idea in what you want to kids walk around with as a phrase, "what’s swirling around in their head?" When we phrase it as a word, it doesn’t give the direction for what we want kids to walk away with
- the big idea is a way to connect what we are doing instead of just doing little snippets of activities and books because we like them or that’s what we’ve always done
Example:
Key learning: different sources give us different information
2nd Key learning: different people have different opinions (to get at the big idea)